How to Use Lift Gamma Gain in Kdenlive

This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to use the “Lift, Gamma, Gain” effect in Kdenlive for precise color correction. You will learn what each color wheel controls—shadows, midtones, and highlights—and how to manipulate them to achieve professional color grading results in your video projects.

Finding and Applying the Effect

To begin color grading, you first need to apply the effect to your video clip: 1. Open your project in Kdenlive and select the target clip on the timeline. 2. Go to the Effects tab (usually located in the bottom-left or side panel). 3. Search for “Lift” or navigate to Color and Image Correction > Lift/Gamma/Gain. 4. Drag and drop the effect onto your timeline clip. The controls will appear in the Effect/Composition Stack panel.

Understanding the Three Color Wheels

The Lift, Gamma, Gain effect splits your video’s tonal range into three distinct areas. Adjusting each wheel alters both the color and brightness of that specific range:

• Lift (Shadows): This wheel controls the darkest parts of your image. Adjusting the Lift wheel primarily affects blacks and dark shadows. Use it to establish your black levels or tint shadows (e.g., adding teal to the shadows for a cinematic look).
• Gamma (Midtones): This wheel controls the mid-range brightness levels, which include most skin tones and background details. Adjusting Gamma changes the overall exposure and contrast of the image without shifting the absolute black or white points.
• Gain (Highlights): This wheel controls the brightest parts of your image. Adjusting the Gain wheel affects whites and bright highlights. Use it to set your white levels, adjust overall brightness, or warm up the highlights.

How to Adjust the Controls

Each of the three parameters features a color wheel and numerical adjustment sliders:

1. Color Tinting: Click and drag the small point in the center of a color wheel toward a specific hue. Moving the point toward blue will cool down that specific tonal range, while moving it toward orange or red will warm it up.
2. Luminance Adjustment: Underneath or alongside each wheel is a master slider (often represented by a vertical brightness bar or a slider labeled ‘V’ for value). Slide this up or down to increase or decrease the brightness of the shadows (Lift), midtones (Gamma), or highlights (Gain).
3. Resetting Values: If you make a mistake, double-click the handle in the center of the color wheel or click the reset icon next to the parameter to return to the default settings.

Recommended Workflow for Precision

For the most accurate results, enable Kdenlive’s video scopes by going to View > RGB Parade and Vectorscope. Then, follow this standard adjustment sequence:

1. Adjust Lift First: Look at the bottom of the RGB Parade. Adjust the Lift luminance slider until the darkest parts of your image sit just above 0 (pure black) without losing shadow detail.
2. Adjust Gain Second: Look at the top of the RGB Parade. Raise the Gain luminance slider until the brightest highlights reach near 100 (pure white) without clipping or blowing out the image.
3. Adjust Gamma Third: Fine-tune the overall brightness of the image using the Gamma slider to ensure the midtones and skin tones look natural.
4. Balance Colors: If your shot has an unwanted color cast, use the wheel controls to push the colors in the opposite direction of the cast (e.g., push toward blue if the image is too yellow) until the scopes show a balanced signal.